


Mending

by minkhollow



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Doomed Ship Ficathon, EWE, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-20
Updated: 2010-09-20
Packaged: 2017-10-12 01:37:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/119356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkhollow/pseuds/minkhollow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry's more broken than he would care to admit, after the war ends; Luna seems to be the only person willing to let him heal on his own schedule.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mending

**Author's Note:**

> offthebalcony prompted 'Harry/Luna, fragile like bird bones.'
> 
> I am not JKR; I just borrow for fun (or examining the deeper scars that being at the forefront of a major war when you're 17 would leave).

He can't talk to anyone, when it's over.

Harry knows he should, knows everyone wants to hear from him, knows people want to know more about how he did it and what he's going to do next - but he _can't_. He can't be the Boy Who Lived right now, he can't be Famous Harry Potter - hell, he can't even be Ron and Hermione's best friend.

He's been shattered into so many pieces, all his life, and he's never had a chance to try to pick them up and put them back together. People just came along and stomped on them, and then broke him again on top of that.

Luna's the only person who doesn't seem to mind that he can't bring himself to talk about much of anything. She just asks for his help rebuilding her bedroom, since he's staying at the Burrow and all, and rambles cheerfully about her monsters and conspiracy theories while they work, filling all the space that Harry can't.

The night before they go back to Hogwarts - Hermione's insisting that the three of them take their last year, and while Ron's not keen on it, Harry can see her point - Luna comes over for a sleepover. It's all going well until Harry wakes up screaming from yet another 'Voldemort is coming to kill us all' nightmare. Just when he'd hoped the end of the war had ended those, too.

Somehow, despite the fact that he's sharing Ron's room again, Luna's the first one there, holding him before he quite knows what's going on. Despite that, he knows enough not to push her away; by the time Ron's awake enough to ask what's happened, Luna's got Harry on his way to being able to breathe again.

"You don't have to talk about it," she says. "Not until you're ready. But you're going to be all right, Harry. You're going to be all right."

And when she says it, he believes it implicitly. He hasn't been able to fully take anything on faith since he-- since the fight in the Department of Mysteries, but he has faith in Luna.

A week after classes start, he asks Luna to meet him in the Room of Requirement (which provides a couch and cozy fireplace, for the occasion) and tells her everything. The story's more than a bit of a mess, but Luna doesn't comment on that; when he finishes, she smiles.

"Well, of _course_ you haven't recovered yet," she says. "We've all been through a war, and you've been taking the worst of it since you were a baby." She puts an arm around him, and adds, "These things take time, but I'll be here for you."

Harry smiles, for what feels like the first time in years.


End file.
